Congress leaves on five-week vacation, leaving ranchers with no aid and consumers holding the bag

Thursday

Aug 16, 2012 at 4:45 PM

With the average age of a farmer reaching 65, a little flu epidemic could wipe out America's food supply," writes Hank Vogler in the latest edition of RANGE magazine. RANGE is the award-winning publication devoted to issues that affect outdoorsmen, ranchers and wildlife. No stranger to controversy, for more than 20 years RANGE has been the outspoken advocate for people who live and work on the land and an outspoken critic of human-caused problems that plague America.

While Vogler's opinion is tinged with a touch of sarcasm, it has the ring of truth: "Now that we have matured into a kinder, gentler, politically correct society, we should all feel good about ourselves. We love imported oil. We love cheap Chinese knockoffs ('junk'), Japanese cars, Korean steel, and now we are going to slowly but surely compromise ourselves out of production agriculture."

Close to 60, Vogler is an eastern Nevada sheepman, who, with his fellow Nevadan George Parman, can speak with the wisdom gained only through years of hard-fought experiences."Food is so cheap and easy to obtain in this country that our people have no idea how fragile the system is," writes Vogler. "Agriculture is the root of the tree of success in America. The reason people have had their time freed up to pursue other things is that our production agriculture has always been incentivized with abundant production. No one has to worry beyond the supermarket for food. Compared to other countries it is cheap, wholesome, and voluminous in variety. Ninety-nine percent of our population has been relieved of the worry of food production and our borders are overrun with people who want in."

George Parman, has run cattle in central Nevada for decades. His recent letter to the editor of RANGE relates his recent experiences with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

"My old Jeep came to a complaining stop behind the Eureka County administrative building. It was hot, and probably the driest year I've seen in the 80 years I've been in Nevada. On the dash, a single sheet of paper read, 'Notice of Public Meeting: The Eureka County Natural Resources Advisory Commission will hold a public meeting on July 11, 2012, at 6 p.m.' Jake Tibbitts, Eureka County natural resource manager, had given me this paper a couple of days ago. I had received notice of these meetings before, but this time it was going to be different. The second item on the agenda read one word and one word only—'Drought.'""Once inside, I was among friends and neighbors—people I have known for years. There wasn't the same jolly atmosphere that usually exists when friends get together. Even Fred Bailey didn't have his regular, permanent smile on. These people had been told that they were to reduce their cattle numbers on the range and, in most cases, remove their cattle entirely. Told, but not in writing. A 'Full Force and Effect Decision' was threatened if they didn't remove their cattle voluntarily.

"These good people are the ranchers of the Diamond Mountain Complex. In this area, feral horses populate the area at more than 1,200 percent of the appropriate management level. Horse numbers on the Diamonds are at 826 and running there 12 months of the year. The damage they do to the resources, springs and water developments is huge and the ranchers see the destruction every day.

"Doug Furtado, Battle Mountain BLM manager, was called on the speakerphone to explain. Doug said the horses could not be gathered until January, if at all, because of 'higher priorities.' He mentioned a shortage of funding to complete the gather but he failed to mention that the BLM budget for the wild horse and burro program is $74.8 million for the current year—the highest ever. Doug explained the 'fact' that horses don't damage the riparian areas as much as cattle do. According to this bureaucrat's facts, cattle drink and lie around the water source, destroying and damaging the resource while the horses go much higher on the mountains away from the riparian areas.

"After listening to Doug, it was my understanding that what he meant, or believed, was that if cattle are removed, the horses will do no further damage. He failed to mention, as Ellen Rand did later, that it would be impossible to keep cattle inside private fence and on the ranches and feed them $250-per-ton hay — if it can be found at that price.

"This is the story being told across our state. Yes, it's dry. But why gather our cattle and livestock while leaving the horses to destroy everything the ranchers have built for the last 150 years? Many ranchers have already shipped their livestock and many more will. We could be seeing the demise of ranching (and rural communities), as we know it. It could be the end. Just an empty corral.

—George Parman, Eureka, Nev.

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